Color Guide: How to Use Yellow Ocher

Yellow ocher ranges from gold to light brownish and is one of the oldest tints used by people. It’s what you see on the plaster walls of Tuscany. It’s a wheat field at sunset. It’s the glow of gold oak floors.

Ocher is earthy and warm (initially it had been made out of clay comprising colorful minerals). It has an ancient feel — the oldest known human art was made in ocher, and it is often utilized in traditional African American and Aboriginal art. Nevertheless, it was also well known in midcentury design (it goes nicely with this particular shade of muted teal that was popular then).

Ocher varies in both tone and hue. It may be dark or light, golden or nearly brownish. It looks great alongside teal, burgundy red and cool grays and purples. Its richness makes it a lovely candidate for thick fabrics like velvet and brocade. And of course it goes nicely with terra-cotta, its own equally earthy cousin.

An ocher room is a cozy room, even if it’s architecturally large and open. Employed in accessories it adds brightness, richness and energy, just as with other yellows do, but it’s more subdued. Ocher is your mature yellow. While I look at it I return to words like”sophistication,” distinguished,””quality,””intellect” and”confidence” Ocher is your eminent bohemian poet who invites you over for tea and regales you with tales of days gone by.

Palo Santo Designs LLC

Ocher about the Walls

The textured ocher walls add warmth and elegance to the spare room with concrete floors.

RWA Architects

Ocher walls give a room gravitas. There is something distinguished and reassuring about this colour — perhaps since it has weathered trends for centuries.

This is a very orangey ocher. It’s chic and warm and provides the perfect background for an otherwise muted black and white room.

Lucy Interior Design

This light, greenish ocher is almost neutral, but its warmth and thickness make the rest of the room feel cozier and more intimate.

Peggy Braswell

Eclectic design is so frequently performed against a white background. This luminous yellow ocher adds elegance and confidence to the room.

Smith & Vansant Architects PC

Notice how well it goes with teal? It’s earthy and conventional and modern and brand new.

Farm construction corp

Ocher in the Kitchen

Ocher is said to stimulate appetite and is associated with meals. Fantastic for the kitchen.

jamesthomas Interiors

This ocher tile backsplash adds a touch of much-needed warmth to this open, white kitchen without forfeiting its own modern aesthetic.

Vanni Archive/Architectural Photography

Ocher walls with exposed brick and terra-cotta tile floors fit right in in Mexico, Italy, Spain or California. It’s a traditional appearance.

Basics of living With Ocher

Ocher functions nicely in rich, traditional rooms. It’s especially amazing in upholstery or draperies.

Emily Elizabeth Interior Design

Ocher also produces a great warm foundation for a more modern, eclectic room.

Chris Barrett Design

Ocher velvet with muted teal. It’s modern but not chilly.

Michelle Kaufmann Studio

The gold tones in the natural wood bed frame along with the modern bedspread appear to glow against the very light neutrals in the bedroom.

Atmosphere Interior Design Inc..

Spots of ocher velvet against white and black insert muted, not-too-eager pops of colour.

Jeffrey Gordon Smith Landscape Architecture

Ocher Outside

a sizable ocher vase adds colour but looks earthy and historical in a garden setting.

Jeffrey Gordon Smith Landscape Architecture

A more muted version of the colour with a red tile roof adds instant Mediterranean cred.

Don Ziebell

Even paler, almost beige. But with that yellowish glow.

Wall And Floor Tile

Ocher patio bricks have an ancient feel. Can’t you just envision the sandals of the Phoenicians on this?

Benjamin Moore

Deep Ochre 1048 Paint

Ocher ranges from nearly brown to gold. It may be orangey or greenish, but it is always warm. These paint samples along with a swatch will get you thinking.

Serena & Lily Low-VOC Ochre Wall Paint – $45

Sherwin-Williams

Empire Gold SW0012 Paint

Sherwin-Williams

Restrained Gold SW6129 Paint

Benjamin Moore

Honeymoon AF-345 Paint

Sherwin-Williams

Blonde SW6128 Paint

Benjamin Moore

Golden Straw 2152-50 Paint

Paints Stains And Glazes – $36

Cole & Son

Fan Tree Wallpaper

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